By Brian Harbach

The SEC Bachstory will be a weekly SEC recap posted every Monday morning breaking down all the big events from the previous weekend. In order to eliminate all confusion, the Bach in Bachstory is pronounced like back (Back to the Future, The Empire Strikes Back, Back in Black), you get the picture.

This week we take a look at Alabama’s dominating performance, Mark Richt choking another game away, blocked extra points and Gameday in Nashville. As usual the format is the same: please feel free to send me any comments or suggestions. Here we go…

The Weekend That Was

Wild may not be a strong enough word to describe the madness that occurred this weekend in the SEC. With all the big events that took place the starting point has to be with Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide. Their first half performance against Georgia was one of the most impressive displays of football so far this season. Saban had those players so prepared for this game it looked like they knew everything Georgia was going to throw at them before they had decided how to defend the Tide offense.

For a couple years now we have heard the phrase that “Bama is Back” and each time it has been taken with a grain of salt. In 2005 Mike Shula won 10 games and got Alabama on the cover of Sports Illustrated. This year after the upset over Clemson some fans were still skeptical because it was Clemson. But the win over Georgia makes a statement that has not been made by an Alabama team in years. Going on the road in a terribly difficult environment and playing that kind of dominant football has caused every team in the SEC to take note. Don’t kid yourself, that crowd was insane and it was not an easy place to play. Alabama played so well; they made it look easy.

The Weekend That Wasn’t

We will talk about the amazing play of Ole Miss later in the column, but this section is reserved for the sleepwalking Florida Gators. The Gators were punched in the mouth and lost the game when Tim Tebow tripped over Urban Meyer’s ego on the 4th and 1 play. The Gators have been mailing it in all through September and to say they were not prepared to play an SEC opponent this weekend is an understatement. Something has been missing all month from Florida, they had been winning, but it wasn’t dominant, it wasn’t impressive, it was just clinical.

Meyer seems to be trying to prove that Tim Tebow can be a pocket passer instead of being the creative play caller we have seen the last couple years. The 4th down play call was uncreative and that was not even the worst part. The worst part was that it was obvious. Every person in the stadium knew what play was going to be called and if the fans knew, so did the Rebels. The Zook era was filled with obvious play calling and choke jobs like Saturday. The Florida coaches didn’t commit the turnovers, but they let the players down on that last drive.

The Weekend That…What the Heck

Earlier this year many people called the Georgia schedule too tough to handle and UGA fans hated to hear it. Of course the media was talking about the trips to Columbia or Tempe, the game in Jacksonville or the game in Baton Rouge. No one talked about the home game against Alabama. Even with both teams in the top ten once that black out was announced it was a foregone conclusion that UGA would win this game and Alabama would continue rebuilding. Instead of playing inspired and motivated, Georgia came out undisciplined and sloppy.

Mark Richt deserves some severe criticism for the way his team played and for the way he seems to coach in games they are supposed to win. Richt has lost a number of games over the last couple years that were un-excusable (Vandy 2006, USC 2007) and while this game was against a very good team, the way the Bulldogs played showed they were not mentally prepared to win against the Crimson Tide. Maybe it was the overuse of the funeral comments, maybe it was Richt wearing all black to a press conference, but all week it didn’t seem like UGA was taking the game seriously and that goes right to the head coach.

The Weekend That Will Be

This next statement may shock you but it is the truth…ESPN College Football Game-day will be in Nashville, Tennessee this week for the Auburn/Vanderbilt game. The SEC East leading Vanderbilt Commodores will be hosting the biggest college football game of the week and it should be a good one. Auburn travels to Nashville looking terrible on offense, but with a defense that could win championships. Vandy has had two weeks to prepare for the biggest game on their campus in probably 25 years and don’t be surprised if they win it. This is a great match-up for the Commodores because the defense forces turnovers and the Auburn offense loves turning the ball over. This should be a very competitive game and a fun one to watch.

Big Man on Campus (BMOC)

Kentrell Lockett, Ole Miss DE
You must be sound in the kicking game and this weekend Kentrell Lockett blocked an extra point against Florida that was the difference in the Rebel 31-30 win in the Swamp. This was a total hustle play by Lockett as he leaped over the Gator blocker to get right in front of the extra point attempt which he was able get two hands on. One play can sometimes make the difference between winning and losing and that one play was what Ole Miss needed in the end to pull off an astonishing upset. Congrats Kentrell, that kind of hustle is what every team would love to have and Ole Miss should be proud of his effort.

Player Now Doing Charlie Work (PNDCW)
As a note to those who do not know what “Charlie-Work” is, do yourself a favor and start watching It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (the episode called “Dennis and Dee go on Welfare” explains it perfectly).

Jonathon Crompton, QB Tennessee
For the unfortunate people who watched the offensively challenged Auburn/Tennessee game on Saturday you know that five different players took snaps at quarterback for the Tigers and Volunteers. Jonathon Crompton was the least effective out of all five of those players and he looked like he had not been practicing with the team in weeks. Crompton completed 8 of 23 passes for 67 yards and he misfired numerous times when he and the receiver were on completely different pages. He threw out of bounds, he threw to the wrong spot and he looked confused to what was going on. Auburn tried their best to give the game to the Vols with Tennessee having the ball 7 times at their own 40 yard line or better in the second half, but only scored 6 points. Crompton stopped the Vols from pulling off a road upset and he is doing Charlie Work this week because of it.

4 Downs with the SEC

First Down – Florida Special Teams Not So Special?
For the third straight year special teams look like the cause of a Florida loss, in 2006 a blocked punt returned for a touchdown led Auburn to a victory of then #2 Florida, last year Auburn blocked a Gator field goal in a game Auburn went on to win 20-17 and this weekend Ole Miss blocked an extra point and upset the heavily favored Gators 31-30. A lot has been made out of the Florida special teams over the past couple months about how players want to get on special teams and it is a privilege to play in that part of the game at Florida, but it seems to be a position the Gators need to focus more attention on.

We see Brandon James break kicks for touchdowns and we have heard how sound they are in kick coverage, but something is wrong when that many kicks are being blocked. Maybe it is protection issues or maybe it is a kicker aiming too low, but that many blocks costing your team football games may change the opinion of a special teams unit that is supposed to be strong.

Second Down – Auburn’s missing identity on offense
Once again the Auburn offense struggled in SEC play, this week they managed to score 7 points on offense. In three SEC games the Tiger offense has scored 3, 14 and 7 points. The most confusing part of it is the lack of identity going into the 6th game of the year. Chris Todd cannot run, yet Auburn keeps calling designed run plays for him. Backup QB Kodi Burns is a great runner, but Auburn puts WR Mario Fannin, a former high school QB, in a “wild tiger” formation instead of Burns.

Auburn went under center early in the game this weekend and actually moved the ball pretty well, but didn’t do it in the second half until they were in victory formation. Gary Danielson put it best Saturday when he compared being a little spread on offense with being a little pregnant. You are either pregnant or you are not, you are either a spread offense or you are not. Right now Auburn doesn’t know what they are and it is hard for us to know either.

Third Down – Rebels owe Hogs a Thank you letter
There is not a lot of wiggle room when it comes to personal opinions of Houston Nutt, every fan either loves him or hates him. While the opinion of him as a person is mixed, the opinion of Houston Nutt the coach should not be, Nutt is a great coach. While Arkansas fans were never happy with how he coached an offense or how he never developed a QB, he won more than he lost and he took the Hogs to Atlanta on two separate occasions.

The Rebels made a great hire by choosing Nutt and he is going to do a good job at Ole Miss. The win over Florida was a great moment, this team is just a couple plays away from being unbeaten and they have another big game this weekend against South Carolina. If the Rebels win this weekend, they will almost assure themselves of a winning season and a guaranteed bowl game. The old coaching staff laid the groundwork, but Nutt is doing the heavy lifting.

Fourth Down – Alone at the Top
Every team in the SEC East has one loss, every team except the Vanderbilt Commodores. That’s right, the leaders of the SEC East going into October are your Vanderbilt Commodores. Obviously this is a great feel good story for the Dores, but this weekend is going to be the first test they have against a strong SEC opponent. Their defense has played smart and has been very opportunistic, they lead the SEC in interceptions with 10, they lead the SEC in turnover margin at +9 and they are the second least penalized team in the conference. Auburn will have their hands full in Nashville Saturday night.

A lot of stuff went on this past weekend, what were your thoughts? E-mail me Brian Harbach

Pac 10, you have a problem, September 26, 2008
Y’all Play Nice - Week Five, September 25, 2008
The SEC Bachstory, September 18, 2008
Harbach’s Picks - Week Four, September 18, 2008
Y’all Play Nice - Week Four, September 18, 2008
The SEC Bachstory, September 15, 2008
Y’all Play Nice - Week Three, September 11, 2008
The SEC Bachstory, September 8, 2008
Harbach’s SEC Picks Week Two, September 3, 2008
Y’all Play Nice Week Two, September 3, 2008
The SEC Bachstory, September 1, 2008
SEC Picks Week One, August 28, 2008
Y’all Play Nice, August 28, 2008
The SEC Bachstory, August 25, 2008
Y’all Play Nice, August 21, 2008
The SEC Bachstory, August 18, 2008
Has Spurrier Failed at USC?, August 15, 2008
The SEC Bachstory, August 11, 2008
The SEC Bachstory, August 3, 2008
Harbach's Top 5 SEC Offensive Players by Position, July 27, 2008
Harbach's Top 5 SEC Defensive Players by Position, July 27, 2008
Harbach's Top SEC Games, July 13, 2008
Championship Game Hurts SEC, July 6, 2008
Harbach's 2008 SEC Preview, June 30, 2008
Let's Get This Started, June 9, 2008